ironbutcher quarantine au
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In a dry, raspy voice, Simon croaks, “Fuck.”
Immediately, the blurry figure’s head snaps over to look at him. “Are you awake, or just talking in your sleep again?” an unfamiliar voice demands—low, with a twitch of an accent that Simon doesn’t recognize.
Simon blinks, but his vision only clears minimally. The ceiling is an off-white blur that smears as he turns his head to look at the stranger. He doesn’t recognize him; bandages obscure the details of his face. “I talk in my sleep?” he asks.
“A lot. It’s annoying.”
—
Simon wakes up in sick bay, quarantined with the man he accidentally irradiated and permanently blinded. Mutual hatred (of a sort) ensues.Series
- Part 1 of ironbutcher quarantine au
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Red-hot anger flashes through Simon’s body. He’s taunting, Simon knows he is, but he can’t help rising to the bait. “Since when do you give a shit if I eat?”
There’s a pause, and it drags.
“It’s important,” says Jack, finally.
“No shit, but you don’t care if I live or die,” Simon snaps. “You’re hiding something from me.”
“You’re paranoid.” Jack’s voice is low and gruff and certain—authoritative in a way that tugs Simon towards believing him.
Simon doesn’t believe him.
—
Simon and Jack eat dinner.Series
- Part 2 of ironbutcher quarantine au
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“You need,” says Simon, parroting Ava’s words back at her, “my blood. That’s what you said.”
Ava won’t look him directly in the eyes. “Yes. We’d like to test your blood. Please.”
Simon snorts. “Don’t act like it’s my choice. Don’t act like you can’t just walk in here and take it if you want to.”
“I don’t want to do that.”
“Bullshit.”
—
Ava comes to visit.Series
- Part 3 of ironbutcher quarantine au
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Jack’s words hang in the air for several long moments as Simon’s thoughts churn. He’s just tired—tired of everything, including this sickening guilt that creeps back into his chest whenever he’s too present for too long. Hearing Jack’s voice and seeing his face only makes it worse. He wants to do something.
He needs to do something. Some kind of absolution, no matter how absurd.
Simon sits up, turns to look at Jack, and blurts out, “Can I suck your dick?”
—
Simon and Jack pass the time.Series
- Part 4 of ironbutcher quarantine au
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When he stumbles back into their shared room, Simon is breathing heavily. “Jack,” he says, urgently. “If, say, hypothetically, there was something wrong with me, not that there is, but just hypothetically… what do I do?”
Jack turns his head slowly to face him, and Simon hates the way Jack not-looks at him like this, with his eyes hidden but his attention clearly focused entirely on him. Then, he says, “Nothing.”
—
Simon takes a shower.Series
- Part 5 of ironbutcher quarantine au
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Simon’s head is pounding. “Jack?” he mumbles. He hopes it’s Jack. He hopes this is real, and not the dream.
The bandages over Jack’s eyes are so loose they’re practically falling off as he raises his head from where it was buried in Simon’s pecs. He’s silent for a moment, then blurts, “The fuck did you do that for, asshole?”
“The fuck did I do what for?” Simon’s sick of being confused. He tries to lift his arm to push Jack off, but Jack is still pinning it down. “Get off!”
—
Simon wakes up, and falls asleep, though not necessarily in that order.Series
- Part 6 of ironbutcher quarantine au
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“This isn’t a request, Jack, it’s an order,” Ava snaps. She advances towards Jack’s bed, and Simon stands. She halts and looks warily at him. “We need to move you. End of story.”
“I want to know what’s wrong with my blood that you think I’m dangerous,” Simon growls, narrowing his eyes.
Jack holds up a hand towards Simon, signalling him to back off. “Captain,” he says, “if you stick me in a room by myself, I’ll go fucking crazy.”
—
Ava pays Jack and Simon another visit.Series
- Part 7 of ironbutcher quarantine au
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“Yeah. Never appealed to me. Just seemed kinda… unsanitary, I guess,” Jack muses, with a shrug. “But now I keep thinking about it. And I’m so fucking bored.”
“Bored enough that you want to try sucking a dick?”
Jack considers for a moment, lips pursed, then answers, “Yeah. Fuck it. Why the hell not?”
—
Jack wants to try sucking Simon off. They time it badly.Series
- Part 8 of ironbutcher quarantine au
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Then, after a moment of silence, with a hearty flush creeping across her cheeks, Kate squeaks, “Hi.”
Jack giggles, surprising himself. “Hi to you, too.”
“I should, um, I mean, I think we have to, like, there’s still more to—” Kate’s eyes dart around, now, and she shifts her grip on her cane. “I mean, thank you, I—”
Jack kisses her on the nose, and her words stutter to a complete halt as she blinks rapidly at him. It’s the most adorable thing he’s ever seen. “Go on and double-check with Tam, yeah?” he tells her. “I promise not to wander off.”
—
Jack helps prepare the SM-8.Series
- Part 9 of ironbutcher quarantine au
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Rage twists across Jack’s face, but Simon only has a moment to process before it’s gone, because Jack immediately leans down and sinks his teeth into the meat of Simon’s thigh.
Simon’s muscles seize, and his other leg instinctively shoots out to kick Jack off, but it just bounces uselessly off his shoulder. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, I’m sorry, fucking stop!” Simon bellows, as tears well up in his eyes and his leg quivers violently.
Jack releases his jaws and raises his head, slowly. “Keep my wife’s name,” he growls, “out of your goddamn mouth.” His canines sport a splatter of Simon’s blood, and Simon feels dizzy.
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Jack fulfils his promise.Series
- Part 10 of ironbutcher quarantine au
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Almost without thinking, Ava navigates to the folder containing every radio transmission made to or from the tugboat. Everything is there; Ava insisted, starting with the SM-1, that they’d need to preserve everything they could, in case anything happened, and the subs couldn’t be salvaged. David called her paranoid.
Well, look at her now.
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Ava makes a choice.Series
- Part 11 of ironbutcher quarantine au
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There’s a dull thump as Jack’s socked feet land on the floor. “Maybe they’re right,” he contemplates, and the hairs on the back of Simon’s neck stand up. “Maybe you are a monster.”
“Maybe they’re right. Maybe you do deserve this.”
—
Simon meets an old acquaintance.Series
- Part 12 of ironbutcher quarantine au
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“Ah. I have orders to separate you two. By force, if necessary.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Jack tells him. “And Simon needs a doctor. So why don’t you run along and get one and tell Ava she can come down here herself if she wants us moved?”
“If he’s fucked, that just makes my job easier.” He can practically hear the shrug in David’s voice. “So, if you’ll just come with us…”
“You don’t hold the authority here, moron. I do. And I told you to go get a doctor,” Jack growls.
—
David comes to get Simon.Series
- Part 13 of ironbutcher quarantine au
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“How is that even possible? How much radiation—”
Wilson looks back at him, and his face is deathly pale.
Rob decides that he doesn’t want to know anymore, and crashes back down into his chair. “Oh, God,” he croaks.
Wilson slams his fist into the wall beside the door, creating a resounding bang. “Fuck!” he shouts. “I knew I should have been in there, that fucker probably hooked it up wrong, I knew it—”
“Maybe it’s not that bad?” Rob offers, even though he knows better, and he regrets it immediately. “It is that bad. Fuck. That just… happened. Right now. In front of us. Fuck.”
—
Two of Jack's friends spectate the events of Iron Lung.Series
- Part 14 of ironbutcher quarantine au
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“Simon?” An unfamiliar voice gently interrupts his pleasant drifting, and Simon’s eyes fly open again. He hadn’t even realized that they were closed. “Sorry, I wish I could let you sleep, but Jack wants me to make sure that you’re, like… alive.”
“Jack?” Simon repeats. His mouth is dry and feels like it’s stuffed full of cotton balls. “Where’s Jack?”
—
Simon is really tired of waking up in unfamiliar places.Series
- Part 15 of ironbutcher quarantine au
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“How bad is it?” Jack croaks.
“I, uh… it’s… it’s fine…” Simon mumbles. The vibrant red burns into his irides, hypnotically taunting him, and his nostrils flare. His head swims as his lips instinctively part to let more of the pungent smell into his body, and for a moment Simon thinks the hole has gotten bigger, only to realize it’s him that’s leaned closer. “Fuck, I… gimme a second, I…”
“Simon?” Jack’s voice sounds far away.
—
Simon helps Jack with his bandages.Series
- Part 16 of ironbutcher quarantine au
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“What are you asking me?” Ava whispers, so quiet she can barely hear her own voice.
“I’d just…” Tammy pauses, running her thumb over Ava’s knuckles, then goes on. “I’d just like to try… this. I’m only asking that you give me a chance, and see if it’s what you want, rather than running away from something that might make you happy.”
—
Ava wakes up next to Tamsin.Series
- Part 17 of ironbutcher quarantine au
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“Here. Drink this.” Rob’s voice violently jerks Simon from his thoughts, and he turns to find a bottle of unnaturally blue liquid being pressed into his hand. “Not supposed to, but we keep some on-hand for emergencies.”
Simon doesn’t close his hand, refusing to take it. “Don’t waste that on me,” he rasps, mouth dry. “Look at me. I’m not even human anymore.”
Rob shrugs. “Human or not, throwing up sucks. Drink it.”
—
Simon gets an apartment tour.Series
- Part 18 of ironbutcher quarantine au
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Wilson waves a hand dismissively, backing down from Simon’s challenge. “Well, Star Wars doesn’t count because it came out before there were any colonies on Mars, so it couldn’t have been made there anyway. The Terran-Martian movie discourse isn’t applicable.”
Before Simon can respond, Jack cuts in. “Where are we going, Sevens?” he demands. “We’re goddamn fugitives and you’re wasting air yammering about a four-hundred-year-old movie.”
“First of all, there’s plenty of air down here,” Wilson informs him, matter-of-factly, “and second of all, we’re not really going anywhere, I just figure that it’s best to keep moving. Do you want to go somewhere?”
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Simon, Jack, and Wilson putter around in the maintenance tunnels.Series
- Part 19 of ironbutcher quarantine au
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“The fuck do you mean?” he demands, immediately defensive.
“I mean, I lent you soap last week, but you came back still smelling like blood and shit, like you didn’t even use it,” Jack replies, gesturing vaguely in Simon’s direction with his spoon. “My eyes are fucked, but my nose is fine—or, at least, better than my eyes. So what gives?”
“None of your business,” Simon snaps, shoulders rising.
“Uh, it is my business, actually, considering I’m the guy who has to live next to your stink for the foreseeable future,” Jack points out, dryly. Simon can practically hear the eye roll. “Did they not have soap on Eden or something? Never taught you how to do personal hygiene?”
—
Jack & Simon take a shower.Series
- Part 20 of ironbutcher quarantine au